Abbas receives deadline to rid Israel of bombers

Posted: Friday, June 27, 2003

WASHINGTON - Israel is giving Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas a week to 10 days to begin dismantling suicide bomber groups. Otherwise, a senior Israeli official said Thursday, "we will have to go after them" and delay a troop withdrawal from Gaza.

The challenge was voiced by Uzi Landau, minister for strategic U.S.-Israeli relations in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government. Landau was in Washington for talks with the Bush administration and congressional leaders.

Abbas, known also as Abu Mazen, is on the verge of concluding a truce in which Hamas and other Palestinian groups that have killed scores of Israelis promise to stop the attacks.

New regulation requires 'Smoking Kills' warning

PARIS - Warning labels on cigarette packs have not signficantly dented the French passion for smoking. But now, new regulations requiring much larger labels are confronting smokers with the simple message: "SMOKING KILLS."

The hard-to-ignore labels - warning of heart attacks, lung cancer, impotence, aging skin and harm to children - began appearing this week and are the result of tough anti-smoking regulations adopted in the European Union to discourage tobacco consumption.

The regulations, adopted by the EU in 2001, require tobacco companies to cover more than a third of cigarette packs sold in the 15-nation bloc with bold health warnings.

They also require tobacco companies to cut levels of tar and nicotine, list all ingredients, and ban terms such as "mild," "light" and "low tar" that suggest less harmful effects.

Struggling automaker slashes 12,300 jobs

TURIN, Italy - Fiat SpA plans to slash 12,300 jobs worldwide during the next three years and close a dozen factories - part of a turnaround plan unveiled Thursday designed to return the struggling conglomerate to profitability in 2006.

The three-year, $22.5 billion investment plan was seen as the company's last chance to remain afloat, after years of slumping sales in Italy and western Europe.

The plan is Fiat's second in six months, and it was drafted by chief executive Giuseppe Morchio, who took the reins in March, after Fiat reported a $4.8 billion net loss last year.

The job cuts will be made at the money-losing core unit Fiat Auto, truckmaker Iveco and tractor-and-earthmoving equipment maker CNH Global. Morchio said 2,800 of the jobs will be lost in Italy, but did not list the other countries that will see job cuts.

Illegal drug consumption decreasing in Mexico

MEXICO CITY - The consumption of illegal drugs in Mexico has decreased in the past four years, although the number of women who have tried drugs has gone up, Mexican Secretary of Health Julio Frenk said Thursday.

"In 1993, the percentage of people between the ages of 12 and 65 that consumed illegal drugs at some point in their lives was 3.9 percent," Frenk said, citing the results of the 2002 National Addictions Survey. "Five years later, in 1998, this percentage had increased to 5.3 percent. ... In 2002 the level fell back to 5 percent."

As of last year, 3.5 million Mexicans had tried illegal drugs, Frenk said. One fourth of those went on to use drugs more, while 16 percent became habitual users, Frenk said during a ceremony headed by President Vicente Fox in honor of the International Day Against Drug Abuse.